iPlayer in MHEG

[uglyned]

Hi,

 

MHEG working better now but I don't have any option to start iPlayer when I press red on a BBC satellite channel.

 

Is that intetionlly not there? I remember Christian saying something about disabling it because it could lock users up in other countries.

 

If so, is there any way I can enable iPlayer support on my installation?

[hackbart]

The ability to stream IPlayer content is already inside the mheg engine, but i the counterpart for the implementation inside the DVBViewer is not finished yet. It will come probably within the next release, but only for UK customers! The problem is that BBC does not like aliens to receive their streams, similar to broadcasters of other countries

 

Christian

[uglyned]

Thank you. As long as I know, I won't keep trying to find it.

[uglyned]

The latest beta text in announcements says that iPLayer is now available but I can't see it in DVBViewer MHEG - is there something I'm missing? Is there something else I need to do tto enable it? It doesn't appear as an option in the red button menu.

[QBox User]

http://www.DVBViewer.tv/forum/topic/47092-iplayer/

[Tjod]

The iPlayer implementation is not finished (e.g. some playback functions are missing) and therefore it is disabled by default.

 

If you like to test the parts which there you can enable it in the setup.xml

  <section name="MHEG">
   <entry name="ICStatus">0</entry>
 </section>

 

http://www.DVBViewer.tv/forum/topic/47092-iplayer/page__view__findpost__p__346748

[RedDwarf]

How do we test this?

 

Add those lines to setup.xml. Any place in particular? At the end? Then what? What transponder carries the iPlayer data?

 

There is an ITVi Stream 44 channel on transponder 10759V and there are a number of other ITVi channels. However I cannot see anything which looks like BBC iPlayer.

[ak2010]

Hi RedDwarf

 

As far as i know BBCi player is an internet based service only. To use BBC iplayer you just need to be able to receive any BBC Channel via Astra 28.2 then in the MHEG BBC iplayer is a link to the internet.

That's why all freesat boxes have to be connected to the internet to watch it.

[RedDwarf]

Hi RedDwarf

 

As far as i know BBCi player is an internet based service only. To use BBC iplayer you just need to be able to receive any BBC Channel via Astra 28.2 then in the MHEG BBC iplayer is a link to the internet.

That's why all freesat boxes have to be connected to the internet to watch it.

Thanks, now I understand. Therefore it doesn't really provide anything I don't already have. More a convenience than a necessity.

[hackbart]

Well the content provided by BBC via iPlayer is really amazing. Anyway right now it seems to be that the player itself is no longer beta which means i will implement the final 10% of the playback within the next weeks. Which is still a hard nut, because as an alien without a british IP i'm unable to test it

[RedDwarf]

Well the content provided by BBC via iPlayer is really amazing. Anyway right now it seems to be that the player itself is no longer beta which means i will implement the final 10% of the playback within the next weeks.

It's most of what is broadcast on BBC TV channels, including big TV series such as Doctor Who and Merlin plus some really good documentaries which can be very informative.

Which is still a hard nut, because as an alien

Really?

If you look like this then remind me not to invite you around for tea.

 

Or maybe this is more like it.

without a british IP i'm unable to test it

What would enable you to test it? A connection to a British PC using some form of proxy to forward the iPlayer data? Would that enable you to test it?

 

Or maybe a UK VPN would work?

[QBox User]

Most of the radio content should be playable outside the UK. For the TV, why not contact the BBC to enquire about access for developers? They must have arrangements for all the different 3rd-party platforms (TVs, STBs) that iPlayer runs on. At least some of that must be done in Asia. Maybe there's some limited content that can be streamed. For now, the only "legal" access in Germany is for the iPad.

 

The main problem I have with iPlayer's browser or desktop flash-based players is they don't use hardware graphics acceleration, so the HD streams are not practical. It's been suggested this is due to a problem with file headers at the BBC servers. If you can find a way to overcome that, it would definitely be a selling point.

[uglyned]

OK so I've been trying to get this working but still no luck. I've now modified the config files and get the iPlayer red button prompts. I can enter the iPLayer MHEG app and browse through TV shows.

 

However, when I choose to watch one, although it seems to think it's playing it, I just get a black screen. And I can still hear the audio from the BBC channel I was watching before I pressed the red button.

 

I've got Haali media splitter installed, and it seems to work OK - I tried opening an MKV file through DVBViewer and the splitter kicked in as it should.

 

Hackbart if you want people to test this on your behalf you only have to ask. If you give me a testing plan I'll test everything on it and record responses. I'm sure other UK based people would be willing to help too.

[dvbrewer]

Is there any possibility of getting the ITV player working? On Freesat devices it is currently limited to Humax boxes but presumably DVBViewer could bypass this check somehow.

[uglyned]

So can anyone tell me anything about this? Should the video actually work or is it just brwsing through the menus that works in this version?

[uglyned]

Just so you know, these are the issues with MHEG.

 

It interferes with the OSD. The OSD doesn't work while it's active. This is not the behaviour of set top boxes. They should work together.

 

On a channel where MHEG is active, OSD screens that do work are continually removed from the screen. It took me 27 attempts yesterday to get through OSD Menu - Videos - then navigate to the file I wanted to see because the OSD kept disappearing after 1-2 seconds.

 

iPlayer / ITV Player don't work.

 

Red button channel swaps do not work, the MHEG application does switch the channel, but then either exits immediately or errors, switching to a BBC One channel then displaying a BBC MHEG error page.

 

Sometimes when the BBC MHEG application is initialised, it loads the wrong screen.

 

These are all issues that have been raised before. Please do not issue yet another new version of DVBViewer with these bugs in it. Either engage a testing party who can test the application and give you feedback, or admit you can't deliver a working MHEG application for UK audiences and refund us.

[uglyned]

I give up. I could never get this working on my machine and have now removed it. Having removed it, it's a relief to have a predictable, stable OSD again.

 

Until you can rectify the interference with the OSD, facilitate correct MHEG instigated channel changes, stabilise the BBC MHEG app so it always launches and exits correctly, and provide some decent documentation on how the iPlayer should work, I won't be installing MHEG again.

 

All that hassle just for a few news stories on the screen, it's easier for me to exit DVBViewer, plug a mouse and keyboard in and use the internet. Please give more consideration to usability and the user experience when developing DVBViewer further. Technically it's a fantastic piece of software, way ahead of anything else in its class, including Microsoft's attempts. But it really could be a lot more intuitive and could interact more consistently with the Recoding Service.

 

MHEG has been a failure.

[dvbrewer]

I give up. I could never get this working on my machine and have now removed it. Having removed it, it's a relief to have a predictable, stable OSD again.

 

Until you can rectify the interference with the OSD, facilitate correct MHEG instigated channel changes, stabilise the BBC MHEG app so it always launches and exits correctly, and provide some decent documentation on how the iPlayer should work

There are numerous ways they could test iplayer from outside the UK, just need to look on youtube for various methods.

[Bootross]

I have to agree 100% with the above comments, DVBViewer advise that it is normal STB behaviour but it is anything but.

 

There is only one of my STB/TV's that won't actually display MHEG info in the background whilst it lets me browse the EPG/Menu etc and that is my old Toshiba 32WLT66 which is from 2006, this TV actually returns you to wherever you were in MHEG app when exiting the menu. This is without annoying closures of the EPG which you are trying to view as you have just loaded DVBViewer and you want to check what is on TV or to browse for file to play using the OSD menu's or simply just using the arrows on remote/keyboard (the default controls) to change the volume whilst watching BBC. Everything else I own just leaves it in the background as you would expect (Humax Foxsat-HDR, Toshiba 42Z3030D, LG 47LW450U).

 

It seems to me that it's more of how DVBViewer is coded that the MHEG app uses the in built OSD to display which prevents viewing both at the same time/normal STB behaviour, which have the ability to layer the OSD on top of the MHEG app.

 

I am also in a position where although I like the BBC MHEG services for news etc I also don't use the plugin I have paid for, I know the cost was fairly nominal but in it's current format it is not viable and feels counter intuitive.

 

I am looking forward to a fully working version or as above if the feature is never going to mature into a properly working product for us UK users the possibilty of geting a refund.

 

Cheers, Bob.

Edited November 27, 2011 by Bootross